Voicing Demands: Feminist Activism in Transitional Contexts

Sohela Nazneen is a professor of international relations at University of Dhaka and a lead researcher at the BRAC Development Institute, BRAC University, Bangladesh. She has a PhD in development studies from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. Her research focuses on institutional analysis of gender, particularly in the areas of governance, rural and urban livelihoods, and feminist movements. She is currently leading research on gender and political settlement in selected South Asian and sub-Saharan African countries for the Effective States and Inclusive Development RPC, based at the University of Manchester. Sohela has published many articles and book chapters in her subject areas.

Maheen Sultan is one of the founders of the Centre for Gender and Social Transformation at the BRAC Development Institute, BRAC University, a regional centre on research, teaching and policy related to gender and social transformation. She is a development practitioner with over 25 years' experience working for NGOs, donors, the UN, Grameen Bank and the Bangladeshi government in a range of capacities, from direct programme management to policy formulation. She has worked on issues of social development, poverty, civil society and community participation, and gender equality in various capacities - including a close engagement with government structures in the post-Beijing conference period when her work addressed gender mainstreaming and CEDAW reporting. Maheen is a member of Naripokkho, a Bangladeshi women's activist organization, a board member of Caritas Bangladesh and Utsho Bangladesh, and the chairperson of the ADB External Forum on Gender and Development. She co-edited Mapping Women's Empowerment: Experiences from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan (2009).